COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County family woke up to a shocking and scary surprise last month after a car crashed into the second story of their home.
The family was left shaken, but they were thankful that nobody was hurt.
Police said the incident began when Cobb County Police Department DUI Task Force Officer Oscar Escarcega tried to stop a BMW X5 for failing to maintain a single lane of travel and suspected DUI. Police said the 19-year-old tried to speed off from officers.
On Wednesday night, Cobb County Police released the full dash camera and body camera from the officers involved in the chase and what they discovered a short while later.
The video begins with a DUI Task Force Officer following the BMW SUV in the right lane of a four-lane roadway. As the driver gets into the right-hand turn lane, the officer turns on his lights to initiate a traffic stop. When the driver of the BMW makes the right turn, the car immediately begins to accelerate away from the officer.
As the pursuit continues, the driver of the BMW quickly evades Cobb County Police. A short while later, the officer pulled into a neighborhood where he said he last saw the BMW. He later pulls into a second neighborhood, where he is flagged down by a resident at the entrance to the neighborhood on Jacobean Drive.
After pulling into a back cul de sac, the officer spots multiple residents outside the same home, flagging the officer down.
Escarcega asks, "What's going on?"
One of the residents responds with, "Somebody ran into the back of my house or something. My roommate's trapped in the back."
The officer later walks to the back of the house, where he comes across another resident asking for help, saying that a car had driven through his bedroom.
"The car is inside my room, sir! Inside my room, sir! I need you, sir ... I was laying there. The car was on top of me, sir," the resident exclaims.
Escarega then yells out to the suspect to come out of the house with his hands up and his gun drawn. As the officer steps closer to the gigantic gaping hole in the house, the DUI suspect, a 19-year-old man, appears inside the house.
After the officer radios in that the teen appears to be the driver, the suspect responds by saying,"I was not the driver."
The officer asks, "Is there someone else in the car? We need to know."
The suspect responds, "I don't know, sir."
The officer then says, "What do you mean you don't know? You were in that car. Who else is in that car with you? We need to know in case they need some help."
The suspect says, "There might be someone else in there."
The officer asks, "What do you mean there might be? Now is not the time for 'I don't know.'"
There was nobody else inside the car, and the vehicle was ultimately pulled down from the house. The officer's body camera shows the car being lifted from the second floor of the house to the ground.
Police said the driver was speeding when the car began to side slip and eventually left the road on Jacobean Drive. The BMW hit stone landscaping near the intersection, and the car went airborne, police said. The BMW then hit a tree before striking the rear side of one house and then crashing inside another one on Alaspair Lane.
A person inside one of the homes who complained of an injury was taken to the hospital, Cobb Police said. The driver was also taken to the hospital with minor injuries.